Summary Of Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted

Susanna’s parents did not want their friends to know she was in a psychiatric hospital, which is a common occurrence for many families who believe the stigma against those with mental health problems are too strong and that they would rather protect their image than the mentality of their loved ones. The thoughts of each character do well to depict what the thoughts may be of someone actually with their disorder, according to the DSM-5. In addition, the film shows how different each mental illness can be, showing how “normal” Susanna seems along with BPD, or how “crazy” (how some patients are referred to in the film) Lisa seems with her sociopathic tendencies. Each character is evidence to how large the

So even if the husband in hand made the illness worse by secluding her, he is not the monster. But there is still the problem with her seclusion as a whole and psychologically pushes her to have lack of meaning to life. This is where her imagination begins to wonder through the wallpaper and from a psychological standpoint does what is expected -- creates a reason to be in the world and try to subconsciously overcome the issue by creating a woman who needs help out of the

She includes a psychiatric report where the doctor notes, “In her view she lives in a world of people moved by strange, conflicted, poorly comprehended, and above all, devious motivations which commit them inevitably to conflict and failure” (“The White Album” 15). Didion purposely avoids giving personal input during her descriptions of experiences, including this excerpt gives insight into her attitude and mental state during this chaotic time. This description reflects how the time period took a significant toll on her mental health. By including this excerpt, Didion makes the implication about her opinion of her surrounding environment. Didion gets lost in the darkness of the stories that she is dedicated to document through her journalism.

In the “Pain Scale” Eula Biss explains her thoughts and emotions on the pain scale that is given to patients at the hospital. This scale upsets and frustrates her and she gives details through her own personal experiences and through religious examples. The scale that is given to her at the doctor aggravates her because she does not know how to place a number on the pain that she is feeling, she was more comfortable with her father’s method of asking the patient what they would be willing to do to get rid of the pain. She gives examples in history proving that some philosophers did not even believe in the number zero and she also does not believe that a person who is in pain can give an honest statement about their pain with just ten numbers.

Nurse Ratched is a harsh, dictatorial woman who manipulates her patients in order to keep her extreme power. “She smiles and closes her eyes again and shakes her head gently. " Of course, you may take the suggestion up with the rest of the staff at some time, but I'm afraid everyone's feelings will correspond with mine” (Kesey). Even though readers do not get to see the Big Nurse outside of the hospital and her strict personality, she uses the mistreatment of the patients as a defense of events from her personal life. Despite her acting as if she has total regulation of the ward, Nurse Ratched is actually unstable in her life, feeling vulnerable by the patients because they bring up the idea that she may not be mentally secure

If no one is friends and everyone is against each other that means there is no way for the patients to come together to rebel against the Nurse. Not only does her power to force out confessions intimidate the patients, but it also secures her authority in the asylum. The Nurse takes advantage of the Therapeutic Community and puts the patients in an uncomfortable situation when it’s supposed to be doing the opposite and making the asylum experience beneficial and

While he was sitting in the bed, he had asked her to go in the parlor and turn down the people. The fact that she did not do it says a lot. It states a great example of how she doesn’t care about anything but them, which is evidence that she does not care if he is sick, nor does she believe it. In the end, you can see that society has made Mildred self-centered and unfeeling.

Bromden’s bias perspective, and Nurse Ratched’s caring intent prove that Kesey did not make her the antagonist of the story. Broaden turns to McMurphy for help and he brings more chaos than Nurse Ratched ever intended to endure. The nurse left after seeing her lack of control and order of the

In the book One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Nurse Ratched (One of the main characters) is a main factor of bringing fear into other patients. A film called The Ward there are also patients that are scared of the doctor operating on them. Both the doctor and Nurse Ratched are very alike as they put so much fear in the patients with their aggressive looks and that is why patients go from enjoying their entrance to the ward, then fearing for their lives. In the film the doctor also has a soft side which is not shown as much within the film but Nurse Ratched also has a soft side which nobody sees which means both these film and novel have a great connection within them. When people enter a mental ward for the first time they immediately become intimidated from the way they see how it looks.

Moving back to mental health, Hysteria was a growing ailment in this time period. It was recognized as a predominant female malady. It was also known as the “suffocation of the mother”. Symptoms arose from displacement from the womb, according to physicians. It had horrible effects that included fits of breathlessness and unconsciousness that mimicked possession and bewitchment.

She did her research and wrote what she seen in there. It came time for Bly to get released and they, the doctors didn’t believe she was a normal person. She came in what she thought was acting yet to the hospital was normally seen so to the doctors, Bly was crazy. Therefore Bly started wondering really was she just as crazy and fit in with the rest of the ladies she met there. The treatment to these ladies was just so uncalled for and not even allowed today in mental hospital.

How patients with mental disabilities’ treatment has changed over the years is drastic, and deserves to be noted. In the past, the patients were treated very poorly. According the Szasz, it was once believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft, or an angry god. For example, in medieval times, odd behaviors were a sign that the person was possessed by demons. From the 1400s to the 1600s, a common belief sustained by religious organizations was that some people made pacts with the devil and committed terrible acts, such as eating babies.

The Skeleton Cupboard is a novel that is written by Tanya Byron, who is a clinical psychologist, and is a fictional/ truthful account of her journey in becoming a clinical psychologist. This journey is told through the stories of the people she met on clinical placements, both patients and staff. However as she tells us in the introduction and again in the epilogue, the people she describes are fictional, but inspired by the real people that she came into contact with. An idea that she touches on throughout the book is the division between abnormal and normal and is there really a division. The first instance on which this is touched on is a debate between whether someone suffering from mental illness should be referred to as a patient or a client.

When stepping inside a hospital to receive help, one should expect care, treatment, and respect. However, shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and “Howl,” American society equates mental illness with inhumanity. In both texts, the characters are forced to live without basic human freedoms and a voice to change it. Society pressures the mentally ill into becoming submissive counterparts of the community by stripping away their physical freedoms, forcing inhumane treatment, and depriving them the freedom of expression. By pressuring confinement and treating the patients inhumanely, society strips away their freedom to express themselves.

Before the eighteenth century, mental illness was thought to be a problem spiritually. Whenever people started acting weird ,they were thought to be wracked with sin or even possessed by demons (“The Asylum Movement”, 1997). One woman, Dorothea Dix, became a reformer for mentally ill patients. Dix was not alone, however. In addition, a woman named Nellie Bly, a journalist, also helped show the inhumane treatments of the mentally ill.